


After The Rain

by mouch30



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Coming Out, Depression, F/F, Fall of Overwatch, PTSD, Slow Burn, Strangers to Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 22:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14903234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mouch30/pseuds/mouch30
Summary: Overwatch has fallen, and Lena Oxton was quickly following down the same hole.After losing the family she grew to love, Lena moves back to London, trying to gain some sense of normalcy after being an Overwatch agent.There, in the foggy streets of King's Row, she meets someone.And she starts to feel again.





	After The Rain

Lena Oxton sat up and opened her eyes to destruction and death.

She winced, looking down at her arm bent in an unnatural angle. Letting out a wracked sob, she cradled her arm close and sat up on her knees, peering through the dust that was settling around her.

Chunks of reinforced rock and metal lay about, edges hot from the flames that erupted when the bomb went off. The air was thick with acrid smoke, filling her lungs, choking her. She hacked, her throat searing with pain.

With shaking legs, she attempted to stand. Lena took a few steps forward, and came across the smashed remains of the agent she was chatting with mere minutes ago - blood and bones splattered on the concrete, crushed by a large broken fragment of a pillar.

Lena’s eyes travelled around the oozing blood and fell back on her knees. The remnants of her breakfast and early snack gushed out of her mouth as she retched heavily, eyes tearing up from the violent action and the devastation around her. Once she had a moment to breathe, she screamed.

“ _Is anyone there?_ ”

She bent her head and coughed, the scream scratching at her throat. Vomit dripped from her quivering lips, which she wiped off with her good arm. Lena shook her head, trying to make sense of what just happened.

She was in the break room. Talking. Talking to...who was it again? An Overwatch agent by the name of Christopher. He was holding a cup of coffee, tired from staying up all night working on paperwork. He told her a joke right before the explosion…

The explosion.

Fire.

The ground shaking beneath them, crumbling away, walls crashing down...dust settling on dead bodies and debris.

Lena tried to stand once more, surveying the room, trying to reconstruct her surroundings.

“Lena? Lena, is that you?”

Angela Ziegler appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, blood smeared on her forehead, blonde hair blackened with ash. “Oh, thank...thank the heavens,” she cried out, running towards the smaller woman. She wrapped her arms around Lena, burying her own face in the crook of her neck. “Thank God. You’re alive.”

“Angela...what on Earth happened?” Lena asked, tears coming back at the sight of her friend crying. “Was it a bomb? An attack?”

“We don’t know...it could be a terrorist attack, or an accident. Cause is unknown. I’m just glad you’re safe,” Angela replied. “Oh, your arm is broken. Hold on, let me see if I can find a med kit somewhere.”

“I think there’s one in the cupboards, if they survived.”

Angela hopped up, stepping over Christopher’s remains. She cast him a glance, her eyebrows furrowing in anger and heartbreak. Rummaging through the rubble, Angela found the med kit - battered, but whole. “The whole headquarters was hit,” she said, taking off her own shirt to create a sling for Lena. She tied the long sleeves together and looped them around Lena’s neck, and carefully moved the broken arm to rest in the sling. “The medical labs, the hospital wings. I passed the training grounds on my way here. All gone. All ruined.”

She paused to wipe tears off her cheeks. “There. Once we get you to the meet-up point near the front entrance. I’ll be able to take care of this better. We have to get out of here. Can you walk?”

Lena nodded, and began following Angela out of the room. They slowly picked their way through the mess, finding survivors every so often. Angela would rush over to them, make sure they could walk, and patch up any easy wounds they had. Soon enough, they had a group of six survivors, all eager to reach the checkpoint.

“Lena! Lena!”

Lena spotted Winston lumbering towards her, glasses sitting crooked on his nose and dust painting his skin gray. “Winston,” she said with a sigh, meeting him halfway. She wrapped her arm around the matted fur of his neck, holding him tightly. “Good to see you alive, big guy.”

Winston returned the hug, breath trembling with relief at knowing Lena was alright. “I was so worried something happened...is your chronal accelerator okay?”

Lena looked down at the device attached to her body, not realizing the cracks in the plastic casing and the flickering pulse light. “I feel alright…”

“I can repair that. I’ve got an extra one in my lab. Well.” Winston stopped talking. He took a deep breath. “I _had_ one. We’ll have to find some new tools to fix it. I’m. Sorry. I’m just a bit frazzled.”

“It’s alright, Winston. I’m fine.” Lena cracked a weak smile. “Want me to try blinking?”

Winston shook his head. “No, I don’t want to risk anything, especially at a time like this.”

“Lena? Come over please,” Angela spoke out.

“I’ll be right back,” Lena said. “Please don’t leave.”

“There’s nowhere for me to go,” Winston replied with a humorless chuckle.

Angela had set up a crude medical camp, activating the Caduceus station to heal the injured. The cut on her forehead had been treated, now appearing as a pink scar. The Caduceus station hummed loudly, pumping a steady biotic stream into a woman sitting near Angela. The bleeding on the woman’s arm slowed as the wound stitched itself together. Angela wrapped a bandage around the area and gestured for her patient to move along. There was no time to waste.

“There we are. Sit down. I’ll just try to set your arm and apply a cast, and we have to take care of those nasty bruises.”

Lena sat down on the sticky leather chair and relaxed. Angela turned the machine on and Lena was engulfed in a warm glow. Her arm was being rearranged by the doctor, but she couldn’t feel a thing. She watched cuts and scrapes she didn’t know she had close up. Pressure was being applied to her arm now, as Angela pressed a malleable, white plaster into the shape of a cast. With a portable heating fan, Angela dried the plaster.

“Well, that should be okay for a little while. We’ll get you to a proper hospital once we get the clearance to leave. Mein Gott, I hope this was the only base hit.” Angela sighed loudly, and stretched her arms above her.

“Hey, Angela...have you seen the commanders anywhere?” Lena asked.

“Hm? No, I haven’t.” Angela paused. “I _haven’t_. We have to find them as soon as possible. Oh, but I can’t leave...I can’t even get back to the med labs to get my fucking _suit_!” Angela turned and kicked an empty chair, the sound rattling through the hushed noises of the survivors. “This is mental! I can’t even wrap my head around who would do such a heartless thing to so many people!”

“Easy, love. I can gather a team to search for more survivors. The commanders are tough. I’m sure they’re alright,” Lena said, placing a calming hand on Angela’s shoulder.

“That’s the best thing we can do right now. Alright, you’re all done. Yeah, sure, go ahead.” Angela had already begun taking care of the next patient.

“Winston,” Lena began as she walked towards the gorilla. “Think you can help me and some others look for more survivors? Angela said she hasn’t seen any of the commanders before the explosion.”

Winston stopped tinkering with some scrap metal. “Uh, sure. I think I heard the commanders arguing near Jack’s office. They might have taken the fight somewhere else, ‘cuz that’s the last place I recall seeing them.” Winston put down the hunk of metal and pushed his glasses up his nose. “I’ll come with you.”

“Great. Oi, anyone here up for an expedition?” Lena called out to those around her. “We’re trying to find some more people.”

“I’m okay to help.”

“Maybe we can get to the communications room.”

“Is there any news from the other bases?”

“We don’t have any info yet,” Lena said. “But come with us to find out.”

Lena and Winston led a team of five agents around the ruined base, searching for survivors and anything that would prove useful.

The communications room was just as ruined as the other areas, filled with broken equipment and dead bodies. Winston moved aside stone to sit at the control panel, trying to get anything from the cracked screens.

One of the monitors lit up, and beeped faintly.

“I think we got a signal,” Winston muttered, hurriedly typing at the keyboard. “We can contact another watchpoint.”

“Try contacting Grand Mesa,” piped up an agent. It was one of the comm technicians, Sonja. “If they got hit, then we can assume this was a direct attack against Overwatch. Grand Mesa houses all our experimental weapon prototypes and engineering.”

Winston nodded and typed out a short message, sending it to Watchpoint: Grand Mesa’s inbox.

The team waited with bated breath for a reply.

Ding.

“Message from Grand Mesa,” Winston read out. “Our base is secure. No sign of any disturbance. Will keep an eye out, and update you if anything happens. Sending airships to your location, as per requested. Have someone stay near comms.”

“Alright, that’s great. We can finally move the survivors. Winston, you alright with staying here?” Lena asked.

“Uh, I’d rather stick with you,” he mumbled sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I’m still sort of shaken.”

“I can stay,” Sonja said. “If someone can just keep me company, then the rest of you can keep searching.” Another agent raised their hand, and joined the three at the monitors.

“We have to go tell Dr. Zeigler and the others about the airships,” Lena noted. “Can two people get back to the checkpoint and relay the info?”

Two agents gestured to themselves and doubled back.

“Before you all leave, take this.” Sonja stopped the agents from running off, and handed them and Winston a telecommunicator. “Thankfully, these still work. Keep us connected. Now you can go.”

Winston turned the telecommunicator on and hooked it to the front of his suit. “Good thinking. Alright team, let’s head off.”

They walked towards the center of the base, peering under overhanging structures and directing survivors to the main lobby.

No sign of the commanders, though.

“Is there any way of tracking their locations?” asked an agent. “Like, don’t they have comms we can track?”

“That...is a good idea,” Winston said. He bent his head to the comm on his suit. “Sonja, do you think there’s a way we can track the commanders’ locations using their comms?”

“ _Negative, Doc. Already tried it. The comms are either broken or they’re out of range._ ”

“Dammit. Thanks, Sonja. Nothing else new here.”

“ _Airships inbound to the meetup in about 10 minutes._ ”

“We should probably get back then,” Winston said.

“But we still haven’t found the commanders,” Lena protested. “We can’t just leave them.”

“There’s nothing we can do now. We’re injured, tired, and we don’t have any useful equipment. We have to get to the safest base and regroup.”

Lena sighed. “You’re right. As usual.” She poked Winston’s arm, drawing a smile and an eye roll from her friend.

Angela was packing up the medic station when the group of agents arrived back at the point.

“Any luck?” she asked, face full of hope. Her optimism quickly dissipated at the absence of the commanders. “Well. I’ll be able to take care of everyone once we get to Grand Mesa.”

“What are we gonna do once we get there?” Lena thought out loud.

“I don't know. I don’t know anything anymore,” Angela muttered.

The tell-tale sound of propulsion jets interrupted their conversation. A large airship hovered above the clearing, gauging out a good landing point. It settled down, blowing hot air on the people huddled together.

The door of the airship hissed and opened.

“Angela? Are you there?”

A stout man ran down the ramp, braided beard bouncing on his chest.

“Torbjörn!” Angela scurried to the man and fell into his arms.

“I can’t believe the mess here, Ängel,” he said. “As soon as we got the message at Mesa, I hopped right on this ship. Lena, Winston. Are you alright?”

Lena raised her broken arm. “Been better, to be honest. But we’re okay.”

“What about Jack and Gabriel? Where are those two buffoons? How could they let this happen?”

“We haven’t been able to find them,” Winston said. “We can’t track their comms, and mostly all survivors are injured.”

“Alright, get on the ship. Come on, everyone. Wuhan, Peleriaux. Come help Angela board the Caduceus station onboard.” Torbjörn beckoned the agents that traveled with him. “We’ll find them once we get everyone to safety.”

Winston brushed Lena’s arm with his own. “You okay?” he murmured.

Lena didn’t notice she had been standing still for some time, eyes glazed watching people board the ship. “Oh...yeah. Just can’t really believe this is happening.”

“Neither can I. Come on though. We have to get going.”

They walked up the ramp, standing close to each other. The ship wasn’t too crowded, but the number of survivors compared to how many people were employed at the Swiss HQ was staggering.

The ship lifted into the air, and began its journey to Watchpoint: Grand Mesa.

Lena shuffled to the window and stared at the disappearing base.

The broken walls.

Shattered windows.

A crater in the very center.

And a crumbling stump where Strike Commander Jack Morrison’s statue should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all. Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter.
> 
> I really like writing about backstories and making my own interpretations of the characters. I added this to my 'A Hero's Journey' collection because in my head, Lena kept her sexuality close to her, but comes out once she meets a special someone.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
